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Raider of the Lost ARK

Since her fund’s pandemic peak, Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest has vaporized $14.3 billion in shareholder value. So why is she still giving investment advice on CNBC?

cathie wood
It’s time to pull the plug on Wood for the sake of investors who end up buying the unbelievable story she’s selling. Photo: Octavio Jones/Bloomberg/Getty Images
William D. Cohan
October 23, 2024

A few weeks ago, as I was scrolling Twitter/X, I was dismayed to see my feed filling up, once again, with video clips of Cathie Wood on CNBC’s Closing Bell, proselytizing about her fund’s investments in artificial intelligence. Wood’s flagship ARK Innovation ETF more than tripled in value during the early pandemic, mostly by piling into Tesla and other disruptive tech stocks, transforming her into a borderline messianic figure among retail investors hoping to get rich quick. Ever since, she’s been a regular presence on CNBC, where her appearances always seem to end up being metaphorical car crashes.